If you set up a time machine at Devil's Lake State Park and traveled backwards…
With the “Effigy Mounds: Sacred Sites and Native Arts” program coming up tomorrow, Thursday, August 10, from 2 pm to 4 pm at Devil’s Lake State Park, I thought I’d try to wrangle out a timeline that might help “time-confused” folks like me better grasp where the mounds fit in the great gulf of history since the end of the last glaciers. Let’s have a look…
85,000 years ago: The Wisconsin Glaciation began in the late Pleistocene epoch.
15,000 years ago: An Ice front dammed the Wisconsin River at a point one mile east of present Lake Delton to form Glacial Lake Wisconsin.
14,000 years ago: The glacial dam breaks and the massive flood creates the sandstone features of the Wisconsin Dells.
12,000 years ago: Considered the end of the last Ice Age and Wisconsin Glaciation period.
11,000 years ago: Mammoths go extinct in North America
11,000 years ago: First groups of Native Americans begin migrating to Wisconsin (Near the Great Lakes.)
3,000 years ago (1,500 BCE): Widespread settlement begins in Wisconsin as glaciers fully recede
2,500 years ago: Earliest round/conical burial mounds built in Wisconsin
1,500 years ago (500 BCE): Construction begins on effigy mounds in the shapes of animals, birds, etc.
1,000 years ago: The Mississippian settlement at Aztalan, Wisconsin was founded around 1050-1100 CE during the expansion of the greater Cahokia-based Mississippian culture in North America.
500/600 years ago: The last effigy mounds are thought to have been built. (In the 1400s)
389 years ago: French explorer Jean Nicolet is believed to have been the first European to set foot in Wisconsin in 1634. He landed near Green Bay.
Today: Approximately 4,000 mounds remain from the original 15,000+ thought to have been created in Wisconsin.
**Note that all these periods and dates are estimates and different sources often have different dates, so take it for what it’s worth!! 
Image: Sign from Lizzard Mound State Park.
Program Details
Effigy Mounds: Sacred Sites and Native Arts.
When: Thursday, August 10, 2 pm – 4 pm
Description: This family-friendly program will introduce participants to the effigy mounds located at Devil’s Lake State Park. Participants will view a mound near the Nature Center (The Lynx Mound, see map.) and build their own miniature 3-D mound forms using self-hardening clay. This program was made possible by an Incentive Grant from The Friends of Wisconsin State Parks and funding from The Friends of Devil’s Lake State Park and Little Eagle Arts Foundation – LEAF. This program is best for kids 7 and older and adults, but open to kids of all ages. Meet at the Nature Center.
For nearly 2 decades the Skillet Creek blog has focused on 3 main goals; To inspire you to visit and explore the Devil’s Lake region, to help you get the most your visit by sharing tips, events, and other helpful information. Lastly to advocate for our environment & wildlife and talk about how we can keep our natural areas amazing now and into the future! That last goal can sometimes cause controversy, but it’s the only way we can accomplish the first two. – Derrick Mayoleth, Owner.
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